1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote-control connection control device in computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, each of many portable electric home appliances, such as a portable MD player, etc., has been provided with a wired remote control priced at 500-1,000 yen and the main body of the portable electric home appliance on a consumer market has been operated by such a wired remote control. In this way, the main body put in the pocket of a coat, for example, can be operated by a wired remote control instead of buttons on the main body. Such a wired remote control is very useful when such a portable electric home appliance is carried outside and used while walking.
Recently, the icon display, character display and button function of such an inexpensive wired remote control have tended to be applied to a mobile personal computer. A single-wire serial communications system is used in most of the control ICs of the display unit of the remote control. However, the single-wire serial communications system cannot be directly controlled by a device provided in an existing computer, which is a problem.
As the most inexpensive solution, there is a method of generating a signal suitable for the serial communications protocol via a GPIO (General Purpose I/O) by software and operating a personal computer by a wired remote control. However, in this case, the CPU is occupied for a long time and the performance of an information device is greatly degraded.
There are at present few means for connecting the information device and a general-purpose remote control.
As another means of such a kind, there is a remote control used via a USB in a player, model LF1100 manufactured by Toshiba.
If the USB is used, equipment must be provided with a very complex protocol. Therefore, data packets must be processed on the remote control side according to a protocol for data transmitted/received via a USB, and data must be extracted and interpreted. Actually, an exclusive ASIC or icon is required.
Therefore, if connection is made using high-speed communications means, such as a USB, etc., there are the following problems.
(1) Cost is high.
(2) Since cables must be sealed in the case of high-speed communications, a remote control becomes heavy.
(3) Since a microcomputer used in the remote control supports USB and high-speed operations are required, power consumption becomes large.
It is an object of the present invention to provide with a simple configuration a device for connecting a remote control to a personal computer.
The control device of the present invention connects an information device operated by digital signals and a remote controller for generating analog signals as command signals. The control device comprises conversion means for converting analog signals into digital signals and storage means for storing the converted digital signals. The processing unit of the information device executes instructions from the remote controller by reading the digital signals stored in the storage means.
According to the present invention, instructions can be issued to an information device operated by digital signals based on a prescribed protocol without making a special modification to a remote controller for generating analog signals as command signals. Therefore, an inexpensive remote controller with a simple configuration can be easily connected to the information device and can be easily used.